Today I went to a seminar in the middle of the city.  Normally this wouldn’t be worth noting on my blog but this seminar was in a great location on the 12th floor opposite Flinders Street station, with a huge balcony which meant I had the opportunity to take some photographs.

The photo I’ve selected to publish for the 5 story/5 photo challenge was taken there today and captures so many Melbourne icons in one shot. It is also an aerial view of many of the sites I’m featuring in The Changing Seasons series – see here and here for the two published so far.

There is historic Flinders Street Station of course which needs no introduction as I’ve already written about it in a post about the famous clocks.  You can see the blue trains running behind the station. Also behind the station is the beautiful Yarra River that flows through the city and many surrounding suburbs including my own.  In the early morning, rowers are seen training on the river and throughout the day it is busy with water taxis and ferries.

On the opposite side of the river is Southgate, a very popular weekend destination for tourists and locals. The arts precinct is directly behind Southgate, where you’ll find the National Gallery of Victoria and the circular State Theatre.

You can just make out Federation Square in the lower left of the photo and some of our famous sporting arenas to the right of the clock tower, including the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and Rod Laver Arena where the Melbourne Open tennis competition is held. The building that looks like white balls is our soccer arena. The balls light up at night and look spectacular.

I hope you’ve enjoyed your tour of this beautiful part of Melbourne.

The rules of the 5 Photos-5 Stories challenge are: 1) To post a photo every day for 5 days; 2) To write a story to accompany your photo for 5 days (this can be fiction or non-fiction, a page, a paragraph or a poem); 3) To nominate a different person each day. I know that many of my fellow bloggers are regularly asked to participate in these challenges so rather than nominating an individual I’m making an offer to any of you who are interested to take up the challenge.